Watery Eyes; 2nd Worst Nightmare for American School Children and Parents

The tragic massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, that left at least 27 dead in the
second worst attack inU.S. history caps off a particularly bloody year in which every month seemed to bring news of a fresh shootings.

At least 27 were shot dead on Friday morning at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newton, Connecticut, including 22 children - by a gunman stalking the classrooms with a .223-caliber rifle.

The massacre is the worst in U.S. history for a school and only comes second
to University student Seung-Hui Cho's rampage at Virginia Tech in 2007 which left 32 people dead.
Cho murdered 32 people and wounded 17 more before taking his own life.

When the final death toll is counted Sandy Hook may have surpassed that of Virginia Tech.
It's similarly reasonable to imagine the death toll will double the incident that's now almost a shorthand term for school shootings, the Columbine High School murders.

Gunmen and students Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris killed 15 students and teachers there in April 1999, wounding 24 others before committing suicide.

For its firm place in the American consciousness, even Columbine didn't
surpass the 18 killed and 31 injured by gunman Charles Whitman who pointed a rifle from the observation deck of the University of Texas at Austin's Tower in 1966, and started a 96 minute spree that would claim 18 and wound 31 more.

It can only be hoped that the massacre in Newtown will be the last one in a year scarred by random and terrifying violence perpetrated by men with little in common beyond access to high-powered weaponry and unfathomable motives.

Before today, the worst of it was the deaths of 12 people at a midnight screening of the Dark Knight Rises, gunned down in their seats by a lunatic named James Eagan Holmes who seemed convinced he was a Batman villain. After compiling a staggering 6,000 rounds and 350 shotgun cartridges, Holmes dyed his hair crimson, put on body armor, and walked into a Colorado movie theater and opened fire.

Besides the dozen he killed there were another 58 injured before Holmes
was in custody.
On August 5th, a gunman killed six during Sunday services at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, before being killed by a police officer.

Later that month two people are killed and eight wounded in a shooting outside the landmark Empire State Building in New York City.

Before August ends, Baltimore student Robert Wayne Gladden, Jr., 15, updated his Facebook status to 'First day of school, last day of my life,' before walking into Perry Hall High School and shooting a classmate with Down's Syndrome in the back.

Barely 72 hours before gunshots when off in Sandy Hook Elementary, images
of the squad cars blockading the Clackamas Town Center in Oregon dominated the nightly news when 22-year-old Jacob Tyler Roberts put on a hockey mask., pulled out a high powered rifle in a Macy's, announced, 'I'm the shooter,' and began firing into the crowds of holiday shoppers.

He killed two people and likely would've killed more if his gun hadn't jammed.

And while the tragedy in Connecticut has predictably reignited a debate on gun control it's unclear how a system could be designed to catch shooters before they carry out their plans. Holmes had no criminal record and purchased much of his arsenal online. Roberts had a similarly innocent background.